Women and play-by-play

"First and goal. 1.3 seconds left on the clock. The ball is snapped, Ponder falls back, looks at Peterson deep in the end zone, throws up a lob....right into the running backs hands! TOUCHDOWNN VIKINGS" ......she said.

These are two unrealistic (but not impossible) scenarios. The first being that the Vikings actually scored a touchdown...what a heartbreak of a team. The second being that a woman was doing the play-by-play.

While there are plenty of women successfully becoming sideline reporters, they have yet to break into broadcasting play-by-play. This is especially apparent in the NFL. According to an article from ESPN's LZ Granderson, "In 1987 Gayle Sierens was the first (and so far only) woman to do play-by-play for a national NFL game."



Gayle Sieren - as a child she was called "froggy"

Why aren't there more women "play-by-players"?? From what women have proven so far in the world of sports, they can do the same job as men, and not only that....they smell better doing it. So there has to be a reason as to why women are chained to sideline jobs and not up in the box rattling off stats and discussing what she believes the upcoming season will bring.

The first theory is that women aren't qualified enough for the position.

Anyone who is a sports nerd like myself knows this isn't true.  Frank Deford from NPR said "But the irony is that most sideline reporters –– whatever sport, whichever gender –– really have done their homework and really do know their stuff." It is very unimaginable that any network would put a reporter on the sidelines that doesn't know a thing about the teams playing, the coaches, even the venue the game is being played at. What would the reporter ask them? "So Coach...how do you feel about the McDonald's dollar menu?"....I don't think so.
Employees have to be knowledgeable about sports to even be hired. Same goes for any field of work (at least I hope my doctor knew what they were doing when I got my wisdom teeth out).

For every UMD hockey and football game I did the post-game reporting for, I prepared for it. It would be impossible to not review stats before every game...unless you are a super sports genius and knows every player inside and out. In that case, I envy you.

Laurie Orlando, senior vice president, talent development and planning at ESPN, said that she is not going to "put someone in a position to fail." She wants to make sure of this by making sure ESPN is working with broadcasting schools "to stress the importance of giving women in journalism programs play-by-play opportunities so they have the skills to work their way up to a national audience."

I think this is awesome.

UMD's journalism program is fairly new and is mostly focused on print journalism. If the program advances I would highly suggest they expand into sports journalism or broadcast journalism. While learning print journalism was great, writing for broadcast is much different and learning to do play-by-play is verrrryyy different. Orlando said "A lot of women I talk to don't want to do play-by-play," she said. "They want to be sideline reporters or anchors. And it takes a lot of experience to be really good at it."

Another theory as to why there aren't many women who do play-by-play is because "women don't like football and/or sports."

This gets my blood boiling like the ladies on Maury.

What a classy show

Referring back to the ESPN article written by Granderson, "according to the NFL, 44 percent of its fans are women, and revenue from female apparel is 21 times higher than it was 10 years ago." Women have tasted the spice of competitiveness and they liked it. How could you not like being part of team that makes you fall in love with them one week and break your heart the next?? (*cough cough* the Vikings)

It's okay honey we'll get 'em next year...maybe.

Lastly, people think there's an "announcing imbalance because women don't play the sport at the highest level."

Granderson proved this wrong in once sentence. "Well, Jim Nantz, Marv Albert and Dick Stockton -- most of the play-by-play announcers and not a few color commentators -- haven't played "the sport" at the highest level either, and they seem to be doing just fine."

Also, as many people don't know, there is the Independent Women's Football League (IWFL). Full pads. Helmets. Full tackle. The whole kit-n-kaboodle.

Bad ass

Their mission is a "full tackle women's football league focused on creating a positive, safe and fun environment for the women who play the game and fans that come out to watch them." They have 51 teams, 1,600 players and their season starts nine days from today (3/28/12). The closest I have ever got to being this cool was when I played powder puff in high school.

Even though women have come a long way in the world of sports, they still don't get the same respect as men. One of the comments on Deford's article titled "No Respect For The Women On The Sidelines" is....

S R (BigS) wrote:

WWWHHHHOOOOO CCCCCAAAAARRRREEEESSSSS!!!!!!!

This is the exact reason I want to get into the world of sports broadcasting. Because pioneer reporters like Lesley Visser wore media credentials that said "no women (or children) in the press box," because she said "the players who were nicest to me were the black players because they knew what it was like to walk into a room and being the only one," and because Visser, among many others, fought too hard and worked even harder to do what they love. And by god, they are good at it.